Conversation of Our Generation

With everything going on with the election, and all the hype around Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax, I felt it would be good to weigh in on this idea. One of the listeners mentioned this on Twitter and I thought it would be a good topic to dive into to see why it's not a good idea.

What is wealth?: Wealth is everything you are on. It is not simply cash in the bank ready to be taken by the government. Nor is it income.

GDP growth: GDP growth is the main factor that plays into the fact that we have continually increased tax collections year after year whether taxes are cut or raised. if the government wants more money, they simply need to grow the pie. It doesn't matter what their slices if that isn't happening.

Billionaires are people: That means, they will react like people. If you were getting bullied, you wouldn't just stand there and take it. Either you would fight back or go somewhere else. When they're already shouldering the bulk of taxes paid, billionaires won't stand to have their wealth liquidated and taken overtime by further taxation. instead, they will most likely pick up and leave, or find ways around the world tax. Plenty of billionaires have already spoken out and are pushing back against the candidate from the party that they generally agree with.

More on Warren’s Wealth Tax and Medicare Plan here.

Kanye, as a cultural leader and visionary has influenced every piece of pop culture from music to fashion. His latest album has made waves-as did the rest of his have.

It's amazing to hear Scripture being cited in pop music, and he's done it well.

God Is lyrics

1. It allows religion to be cool: when someone like Kanye West professors of religion, it gives cover to other people who believe as well to profess their faith. It has become unpopular or uncool to be a practicing religious person in our culture for a while, and this gives permission to people publicly practice and profess.

2. It shows what turning to Christ can do for you: this album really makes me believe that Kanye has his priorities straight and that he's no longer wrapping for his ego or other worldly things. He seems to have really focused in on what matters most, like his family, God, and true self improvement for the sake of God.

The 80/20 rule is often used to find the highest value next steps. You should ask, "how can 20% of the effort get me 80% of the way to the place I want to be?"

It's no different with political allies, and I was inspired by a tweet by Larry Sharpe, who is an 80/20 ally to me, by a tweet I saw of his recently. It summed up what this 80/20 rule can mean in a political landscape where there is no black and white, only grey.

I have often talked about how I'm willing to talk to people I agree and disagree with, find common ground, and work with people where we agree. I think it is a healthy thing for a society to have this.

The college system is going away. It's obvious that the economic writing on the wall is there. However, education will remain. The question is what will this look like?

Trade Schools: This is an obvious answer. However, I'm not just talking about welders and plumbers. I mean other trades that don't require that you read Shakespeare- just that you know how to do them. Trades like software development, piloting, and many more are increasingly looking to move towards a trade school-like model.

Apprenticeships: Most entry-level roles have little to do with what you studied in school. In fact, most entry-level jobs can be learned on the fly once you prove you have the skills to learn quickly and adapt. Instead of spending 4 years in a classroom, I think we'll see a resurgence of people getting out there and learning on the job.

Online Courses: Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and many more academics have proven this model already. They offer their lectures on circuit and put out content via blogs, podcasts, and YouTube. This is already happening, and it allows people to dive into content at their own pace and to the extent they want to do so.

But where does the Liberal Education go?

I think the online courses could replace the crappy general education colleges push kids through for 2 years simply to get a little extra cash. What I want to know is if you'd like to learn that way.

It seems as though we have trouble delineating between different means of understanding the world and how those should be used. I've seen philosophers make for bad scientists and scientists make for bad philosophers. The reason, I believe, is they require different ways of searching for Truth.

Science tells us about what we can measure.

Philosophy tells us about what we can work through with reason.

Science and philosophy can inform each other. The scientific method is rooted in philosophical ideas. And many philosophers use science in deepening their understanding.

Abortion is a discussion about values that can be informed by science. We can see the evolution of thought around abortion as the science has improved.

Climate change is a scientific question- and so is any solution to combat its effects. However, assigning values and making the tradeoffs is a philosophical discussion.

The panic over climate change seems to be getting worse and worse despite the fact that the predictions have been wrong time and time again. Today, I would like to discuss the panic around climate change and the lack of good solutions to the problem.

Is it warming?

It seems to me that based on the evidence it is getting warmer. I am not sure exactly how fast it's happening, nor do I know if that is worldwide or certain areas. Sure there might be dips in temperature, but that is like saying the stock market hasn't gone up steadily since we've begun tracking it when there is a recession. A local dip doesn't mean that the overall trend isn't going up.

Is man to blame?

There seems to be evidence that man contributes to global warming in some respect. By disrupting ecosystems and releasing pollution we do have a negative affect often on the environment. We do have a positive affect in many aspects as well, and if we can mitigate the negative effects I think we can really reduce our impact with some simple things

What should we do?

Well, socialism isn't the answer. My main problem with climate change alarmism is that the answer always is government takeover of this or that. It is never a call to personal responsibility in any meaningful way. Nor does it go after the large perpetrators.

It seems that school has lost sight of the goal that they should be educating and challenging students instead of indoctrinating them. The system we have now doesn't truly provide an education, rather it is a path for skills training to get a job.

Bad incentives: The system we have currently was developed by socialist activists like Dewey. Because of that, the system has for a long time had a bad incentive structure for those who truly do excellent work.

Lack of options: Despite the fact that we have tons of unfilled labor jobs, especially those in skilled trades like electricians, welders, etc., we do not educate people on that opportunity, nor do we prepare then. There is also a lack of options for schools. If you want people to be able to succeed, allow them to go to the schools of their choice instead of trapping them generation after generation in a bad school system.

Biases: The biases in the education system had become so ingrained due to the fact that many of the elite educators lean in one political direction, and the government has an incentive to educate people to enjoy a big government. There is no conservative answer to the Howard Zinn ways of educating people. They don't need to answer with their biases, but with the truth and allow people to decide.